Cellular & Developmental Biology

Biomedicine

Biological Chemistry & Molecular Biophysics

News & Announcements

Ashish Kulkarni, who is joining the chemical engineering department this fall as an assistant professor, is one of the “Talented 12,” an international team of rising all-stars in chemistry, chosen by Chemical & Engineering News. Kulkarni, who is nicknamed the “Cancer Crusher” by the magazine, focuses his research on the development of pioneering, structure-activity, relationship-inspired nanomedicine for cancer therapy. Read more

Protein research by Gierasch and team has implications for disease treatment

A team led by Lila Gierasch, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, has demystified the pathway of interdomain communication in a family of proteins known as Hsp70s—a top target of dozens of research laboratories trying to develop new anti-cancer drugs, antibiotics, and treatments for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Read more

Molecular biologists led by Leonid Pobezinsky and his wife and research collaborator Elena Pobezinskaya have published results that for the first time show how a microRNA molecule known as Lethal-7 (let-7) serves as a molecular control hub to direct the function of cytotoxic T lymphocytes by putting the brakes on their cell-killing activities. The research group led by the Pobezinskys includes his Ph.D. student and first author Alexandria Wells, UMass Amherst molecular biologist Michele Markstein, who provided the computational analysis to identify let-7 targets and how let-7 regulates the genome, and UMass Medical School immunologist Raymond Welsh, a specialist in cytotoxic CD8 T cells who provided a viral model for testing differentiation in the presence of virus. More

Madison Tyler MS Thesis Defense

Vachet Receives Grant to Study, Prevent Protein Aggregation

Richard Vachet, chemistry, received a four-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue his group’s study of the aggregation by βeta-2-microglobulin (β2m), the protein that forms amyloid fibril deposits in the joints of patients with kidney disease who are undergoing dialysis. Read more

Sankaran “Thai” Thayumanavan and colleagues Jiaming Zhuang and PhD student Kingshuk Dutta, Chemistry, have developed a new method of delivering intact proteins inside cells, which could be used for treating human diseases. The research was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Read more

NSF grant furthers UMass work on supporting students in STEM

Margaret “Peg” Riley, Biology, and Elizabeth “Betsy” McEneaney of the College of Education, have received a three-year, $987,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue their efforts to increase student participation and success in STEM careers and research. Read more

Gross co-authors study on collaborative learning

David Gross, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, is co-author of a new study in the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning that looked at best approaches to collaborative learning. The study suggests that students can be successful in a team-based course even when the instructor does not design the team, a finding that runs counter to other literature on collaborative learning. Read more

Thayumanavan Receives $1.8 Million to Create Center for Autonomous Chemistry

Sankaran “Thai” Thayumanavan, Chemistry, has received a three-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create a multi-university Center for Autonomous Chemistry, where he and colleagues including Vince Rotello, also Chemistry, will seek to design artificial self-activating systems. Read more

Vierling and colleagues find mechanism for plants to recover from heat stress

Elizabeth Vierling, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, and colleagues in India and China report finding a crucial mechanism that plants need to recover from heat stress—an important discovery as climate change is resulting in increased damage to crops. The findings were reported in The Plant Cell. Read more